Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a lane partition line recognition system including the same.
Related Art
Conventionally, a technique for capturing an image ahead of an own vehicle using a camera and recognizing lane partition lines in the acquired image data is known. To recognize each lane partition line, edge points where large variations in luminance occur are extracted from the image data and then approximate lines passing though the edge points are calculated by fitting.
However, some noise spikes may occur in the image data. Such phenomena are accentuated when heat is generated by an increase in digital gain of the camera during night hours. A couple of techniques for reducing the noise using an interpolation process have been envisaged (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-55281 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-206553).
The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-55281 performs an interpolation process using pixels away from a pixel of interest and having the same color as the pixel of interest. This interpolation process may cause the color of the pixel of interest to cloud and thus lower the contrast. In addition, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-206553 sorts luminance values of 25 pixels around the pixel of interest to perform the interpolation process, which may increase a processing load.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing an image processing apparatus and a lane partition line recognition system including the image processing apparatus.